The four-and-a-half-year-old grabbed a money box and started hunting for change.

"He wouldn't watch ABC Kids, he just wanted to watch the news and see the koalas," his mother Sophie Hall said.

"His grandmother bought a money box and he took it over saying he was helping the koalas.

"He started by just putting 10c and 5c pieces in that he found around the house. Then he went to all my family and started to collect change from them."

ALSO MAKING NEWS:

That's when Ms Hall decided to step it up a notch and put the fundraiser on Facebook. It raised $400.70 for the Port Macquarie Wildlife Hospital.

After a Taronga Western Plains Zoo staff member saw his good deed, Dalton was invited to meet some of the animals he loves so much.

He visited the zoo's wildlife hospital where he was introduced to Lucky, who had a broken leg, before getting up close with long-time koala resident Norman.

"He was so excited. He couldn't understand it was real life koala in front of him," Ms Hall said.

"He still tells everyone all about it."

Dalton has always been an animal lover. His mum says in the dust storms he worries about the birds.